The zombies in the show seem faster and more coordinated than in the book.

I noticed this too. I suspect the change was made to make the zombies seem more threatening for the TV audience in the same way as giving the zombies the ability to break into a full run in the Dawn of the Dead remake. It also expands the theory started in the book of having different classes of zombies. You've got the low functioning undead (Lurkers) that just lay around motionless until prey comes along and move up into the Roamers/Biters which are mobile. The show seems to be expanding that higher functioning class into individuals that can actually scale fences and turn doorknobs.

On another board, the theory of how fresh a zombified individual is also came up as a theory, with the freshly dead being quicker, smarter and more agile than "older" zombies which gradually become slower and dumber until they eventually become Lurkers.

The reason I note it is that in the book they've said a few times that the zombies aren't that fast and as long as you are alert and there are not too many of them it's not hard to avoid them and even smarter just to dodge them than to bother "killing" them. The nice thing about the book is that they have emphasized that the zombies are not so much a threat as an environment and the real threat comes from other survivors not the zombies.

The two classifications do exist in the book but it hasn't ever been stated that it's a matter of how freshly turned a zombie is that makes them a roamer or lurker. In fact, that would kind of suck because then the default is that as time goes on, almost all zombies will age and become hardly any threat. So I'm not sure that theory works. More likely, they just wanted the zombies to present more of a threat on screen where movement is an element not seen in teh books and decided that slow zombies don't work. I also don't recall zombies climbing ladders or wielding weapons (such as the rock teh zombie was using to bang on the glass) as in the show.

I'm not necessarily complaining. I get that TV is a different medium and I don't expect a true panel for panel adaptation. On the contrary, movies and shows that do that (300, Sin City) universally suck and since I know the story I'd prefer new stories based on the same characters.

The emoticon is just a smile with a nose. I use it a lot because I'm generally happy. :^)

OK, so after checking AMC's website, I guess this isn't the first AMC original series to wow the mainstream. I never watched those shows and never knew they were AMC originals, so as far as I'd known, AMC had never had a big hit series before.

I have a slighly worn hacksaw and I have grave doubts that it could cut through police issue hardened steel handcuffs or a large pipe either. I know that hiker that cut his own arm off when trapped by a rock was able to do it and not bleed to death, so it is possible. Where was all the blood? I watched that scene again and I saw a lot of blood behind the hand.